The present invention relates in general to vehicle lighting, and specifically to a device for vehicle lighting in which an emitted light beam used for lighting is deflected by a deviating prism and a reflector.
Poor visibility at night is a stressful and dangerous situation, dreaded by many drivers. The frequency of accidents is decidedly higher at night as a result of poor visibility, compared with driving during the day and with good visibility. The use of the low beam, because of oncoming traffic, results in low visibility which is misjudged by many drivers. This results in late recognition of unlighted obstacles, pedestrians, bicyclists without light, and animals, thus resulting in accidents. In addition, the lights of oncoming vehicles and their reflection glare the driver, in particular when the road is wet; i.e., the driver briefly drives into a black hole. Particularly at risk here are night-blind drivers and older drivers because of their reduced sight. Rain, fog, and snowfall make the visibility conditions even worse.
An improvement of visibility at night is achieved by using an optoelectronic system as described in German Offenlegungschrift [laid open publication] 40 07 646.6.
The system records a video image of a scene and displays it to the driver in a suitable form. The displayed image shows substantially more than the driver may see directly through the windshield with his eyes. In addition to the normal headlights, the system has two “laser headlights” which use laser diodes, emitting in the near infrared range, as a light source. Since infrared light is almost invisible to the human eye, such lighting may be used “in the permanently turned-on position.” However, the necessary extra space for the laser headlights in addition to the normal headlights is a disadvantage.